Cerro Armazones at night

Image at night at the ESO Astronomical Site Monitor on Cerro Armazones in the Chilean desert. Located near ESO's Paranal Observatory, home of the Very Large Telescope (VLT), Cerro Armazones is a candidate site for the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT). There are half a dozen potential sites for the ELT, which, with its 40-metre-class diameter mirror, will be the world’s biggest eye on the sky. The ELT Site Selection Advisory Committee picked Cerro Armazones as the recommended site on its final shortlist of choices. The committee picked Armazones because of its excellent sky quality and its ability to integrate its operation with the existing Paranal Observatory.